By Deiriai Myers
There is a public health crisis happening in our nation right now that needs our immediate attention. Albert Einstein is reported to have said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We must begin to act differently.
As a society, we no longer can sit idly by and watch our fellow brothers and sisters traumatised as they are forced to pick up the pieces following an act of violent crime involving our young men and boys. Following a heinous criminal act, many of us in the public speculate about the reasons for these acts: idleness, high rates of unemployment, lack of religious guidance, poor parenting, the absence of community support and other excuses.
I would argue that these acts are cries for help from marginalised and frustrated young men and boys. Now, before you progress any further through this opinion piece, I will offer a disclaimer that it is not my intention to assign blame to the victims of violent acts. Rather, I consider this as an opportunity to begin a conversation about the root causes of this public health crisis.
I recall in my childhood years in the early 2000s that “women empowerment” and “gender-based issues” dominated public discourse. These are very important issues that we as women are working hard to address so much so our culture has also developed a sisterhood around the idea of women supporting women both in our personal and professional lives. Now, it is time for the men in our society to do the same for our young boys and men!
While I acknowledge the influence of females (mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers) on the growth and development of our young boys, some conversations are better led by the male. Certainly some topics should be approached from the perspective of the male in order for them to be understood by young men and boys. At the time of writing this article (July 2024), our country’s homicide count for the year stoods at 29. These can be classified as senseless killings mostly involving young men under the age of 35.
A multi-sector approach is required to begin solving this issue. I offer a suggestion through these fundamental questions:
- How does our culture depict masculinity?
- How many of our young and indeed older men are displaying characteristics of positive role models within our communities?
- How visible are those men who display these positive characteristics?
- How do our teachers, who are primarily female, approach the education of our young boys and men? How can we better train our educators and school officials to screen for delinquency in our young boys?
- What is the role of our youth groups, both church and non-church affiliated?
- What role do our politicians,majority of whom are men, have in shaping discussions around masculinity and men in our society?
- How can we better support our single mothers who may have difficulties raising their sons? What does remedial training in our prisons look like so that we reduce recidivism?
Finally, are we now seeing that our sustained efforts to empower women have inadvertently excluded men? This approach must be revisited. A Searchlight news article published on July 23rd, 2024 reported that only one male was among the 176 member graduating class from the St. Vincent and the Grenadines School of Continuing Education.
What was the outreach to this school’s programme like, and how can it be improved to encourage young men to take advantage of these opportunities? It is clear that females are taking advantage of the opportunities to invest in their professional advancement. How can we encourage more young men to think positively about their future and engage with the resources available and provided by the state to invest positively in themselves?
The multi-pronged approach required to tackle this issue cannot be arranged overnight and requires every sector of society to play a role. In acknowledgement that it is easy to become disillusioned with the state of affairs, it is also imperative that we take a closer look at the root causes of this crisis involving our young men and boys. The time to act is today!
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Crisis!